News

Mount Relay for Life raises more than $47,000

April 03, 2014

Newburgh, NY -

Fr. Kevin E. Mackin, OFM, president of Mount Saint Mary
College, kicks off Relay for Life. Photo by Lee Ferris.

Mount Saint Mary College’s Relay for Life recently earned
$47,300 for the American Cancer Society – topping last year’s total
by nearly $10,000 – thanks to the efforts of students, faculty,
staff and volunteers from the community.

More than 400 members of nearly 40 teams took turns walking laps
from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. to honor those who have or were lost to
cancer, and to raise money for a cure.

Thirty-two survivors, including students and faculty, were
guests of honor.

Survivor Diana Pernicano of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., a sophomore
nursing major at the Mount, began her battle against cancer began
in fall of 2013: she found a lump in her neck during a hands-on
lesson in a nursing class.

She credits the course with saving her life.

Pernicano received treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma immediately,
and is now free of the disease. She raised more than $2,000 for the
Mount’s Relay for Life this year. To view a video of Pernicano’s
story can be seen on YouTube.

The Relay committee of 26 student leaders, led by event chair
Anthony Cona of Farmingdale, N.Y., and MSMC Colleges Against Cancer
president Kristen Maiberger of Baldwin Place, N.Y., began planning
in September 2013.

“A diagnosis of cancer can be a very scary thing,” he said. “As
we seek to balance our lives, our health, and our families and
friends, in contemplating challenges and tests we face, I think of
this saying: I shall pass through the world but once: any good
therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any
human being, let me do it now, let me not defer or neglect it for I
shall not pass this way again.”

Fr. Mackin applauded everyone in the Relay for Life.

More than 50 percent of Mount students engage in community
service as part of their coursework or through club
participation.

Over the past five years, the Mount’s teams steadily increased
contributions to the American Cancer Society. In 2010, the teams
donated $13,413. In 2011, the amount increased to $27,157. In 2012,
the total was $28,420, and last year, Mount Saint Mary College
teams raised more than $37,000.

The event was sponsored by the Colleges Against Cancer SGA Club,
the Student Activities Office, and the American Cancer Society.